In the past, Mobile has been a sore spot for Alabama fans with several of the top prospects in that area going elsewhere. However, since the arrival of Nick Saban Mobile has been a priority for the Alabama staff, and today the Tide landed a verbal pledge from Mark Barron, 6-foot-2, 205-pounds, who is considered to be one of the top athlete's in the nation.

"Mark decided today to call the Alabama staff and let them know he was committing. He talked to Coach Saban and some of the others. They sounded pretty excited," St. Paul head coach Mike Bates said. "He's a shy person by nature and doesn't enjoy talking about himself so he wanted to do this with as little fanfare as possible. He's just a great kid who wanted to focus on his last high school season.